Sons of destiny.
by CloudD
Summary: This is my second fic. The world wasn't saved by Cloud and the others as we know from the game, but Sephiroth became one with the planet and dominated mankind. After nearly two decades a new Avalanche rises to take on the evil Sephiroth. R&R please.
1. Part one.

Chaos, destruction, death, fear

Disclaimer:

I do not own the characters from Final Fantasy VII used in this fic.

Sons of destiny.

Part one. Avalanche revenge.

Chaos, destruction, death and fear.

These are the words that describe the world humans live in today. After meteor hit the world and Sephiroth became one with the planet, humans became engulfed in a never-ending struggle for survival.

The lands were crawling with various monsters; there was no place left on the planet where one could live without fearing for his life every day.

Very few of the animals survived the collision, and the few that had were now starving because of the lack of plant life. The collision caused the sun to be blacked out due to the dust clouds thrown into the atmosphere, causing the plant life to wither away.

Right after Sephiroth obtained the knowledge of the ancients, he learned to call upon the power of the planet. Using his new powers he summoned an army filled with hideous monsters to hold the humans that survived under control. Terrified by the monster armies, the humans lived in fear in the villages created by Sephiroth.

After the initial shock, one man formed a resistance faction named after the former terrorist group Avalanche. This new Avalanche fought against the suppressing armies and eventually challenged Sephiroth at his fortress. Sephiroth had build his fortress on top of the enormous crater left after meteor collided with the planet.

Having learned more about his powers, Sephiroth now had full access to the planets powers, so to stop the coming army of humans he called upon the greatest powers the planet had to offer: the power to create WEAPONS. Using the powers of the planet, Sephiroth created three WEAPONS to eliminate the rebellion and to lead his army of hellions.

After this devastating blow to the rebellion, Sephiroth gave each WEAPON control of a different continent to make sure that no one would form another army to oppose him.

In control of the west continent was FRAVARDIN WEAPON. The north continent was in control of AVERILL WEAPON. The third and strongest WEAPON was AJIT WEAPON; it was also the main protector of Sephiroth's fortress. Each WEAPON had it's own army with humanoid soldiers.

It was raining; it always did here, as if the planet itself was crying. Three humans stood on top of a hill and gazed down upon the enormous fortress inside the crater.

They where all dressed in the same clothes: sturdy, leather boots, baggy army slacks and army sweaters. The oldest of the three wore a leather jacket over his sweater. They carried various weapons with them, as if they where planning to take the fortress by themselves.

"You all know what to do, so let's stop wastin' time and get this show on the road!"

Said the oldest, he was about 36 years of age, was the leader of the small group. His name was Kyrios and he was one of the survivors of the collision. Kuno, a 22 your old man, nodded and loaded his gun.

"…Let's rock!"

He placed a sound record in his player and jumped off the hill. 

"Damn, he's really anxious to die, isn't he?"

Sarita, the only female, said.

Kyrios simply nodded,

"You know his reason. Like everyone else, he's lost people that where close to him, he just couldn't handle it."

Sarita watched Kuno storm towards the fortress and looked out to see if AJIT was anywhere near.

Kuno stormed directly towards the fortress, shooting monsters and machines. Killing monsters and humming along with his music; this was the only way he could feel free. The gun he handled was one of the finest ever made by man, it was said it could even kill a WEAPON. This didn't matter to him though for he would be with his loved ones soon. When he made up this daring plan, he convinced the others that his sacrifice would be the only way for the others to reach the fortress alive.

Suddenly he felt the hot breath of a monster in his neck; he dropped himself on the ground, rolled over and blasted the thing to pieces. Parts of the monsters gut splattered on his clothes. Completing his roll he jumped back on his feet, his mouth curled to a grim smile; maybe this piece of junk had the power to kill a WEAPON. It surely had enough power to disintegrate any monster that came to close.

A blinding bloodlust took control over him and he was getting more and more reckless. His shooting attracted more and more monsters, coming from all directions, but still no WEAPON. Kuno jumped over one of the monsters he'd just shot and opened fire on the newcomers, energy beams burst out his weapon and ripped the front group in pieces. A second group came from the left and a third from the right. One single monster approached him from behind. Kuno turned to the left group and while shooting he rolled over and opened fire on the monsters that approached him from the right. Kuno stood up and wiped some sweat from his forehead and grinned; he never thought this would be this easy.

Just as he started to walk further, something grabbed his left-arm and ripped it off.

"Aaaaaaarg… wha the fuck? Aaaah, my arm…"

Kuno backed away from the beast held his arm in between its massive jaws.

"Wrrrruuaaaarrrrgg…"

Kuno raised his weapon and just as he wanted to pull the trigger another monster jumped him, forcing him to the ground.

"Ugh, shiiiii…"

His words died suddenly as the behemoth bit of his head. The rest of the monsters swarmed over the remains of Kuno, severing his body into a million pieces. His weapon flew through the air and hit the ground with a thud. The attached materia started to glow and final attack summoned Bahamut.

The skies cleaved open as Bahamut entered this dimension. The lord of dragons opened his mouth and unleashed his mighty flare; torching every monster in his adjacent. The cries of hundreds burning monsters could be heard miles away and the smell of burning flesh filled the air. Some of the monsters could evade the first wave of flames but Bahamut turned and fried them on his second pass.

The flames of Bahamut's flare lighted up the dark skies and turned the rain into a suffocating warm mist.

"This is our signal! Let's go!" Kyrios jumped out of hiding and moved towards the fortress. "C'mon, git a move on!"

"…………You think he's dead?"

"I'm sure he's dead, if he wasn't… we wouldn't be moving now, now would we? He knew the plan, hell he even proposed this part, now git going!"

Sarita looked over the outstretched Bad Lands in front of her and recalled the Kuno she knew, for as long as she could remember he was as solid as a rock.This changed when his entire village was used for some kind of experiment and he was out to investigate, and his wife lost her life during a raid on the town they where residents in. He always blamed himself for both incidents; he was convinced that he could have saved both his wife and hometown if he'd only been there. Eaten by guilt, he changed into the person that planned and executed the first part of their scenario to rid the world of Sephiroth's repression.

She shook the memory off and focused on what she had to do.

"……You're death will not be in vain, I promise!"

She ran after Kyrios.

Secluded by the fog they made their way to the fortress, encountering nothing but the bloody remains of what used to be the ferocious monsters they used to fear. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she imagined Kuno running through here, towards his death. (Damn, where are you AJIT? You never let anyone get this close before.) She stopped running when she reached the edge of the crater. Kyrios was getting their climbing gear ready.

"Kyrios?"

"…What?"

"Why isn't AJIT breathing down our necks? And all these beasts… normally if you'd kill one, four others will take its place. Somethings wrong, I can feel it."

"We're lucky, I guess. No need to think too much about it. Focus on our mission, when we get back, we can start thinking about stuff like that."

She nodded and climbed up the mountain that had formed when Meteor struck the planet. After a final glance over the wastelands, she started the long, hard climb to the top.

After a long climb up the cliff, and some near fatal accidents on the way down, Kyrios and Sarita stood in front of the main entrance of the fortress.

"Okay Sarita, you know what to do, see you later!"

Kyrios ran to the left side of the gates, fired a grappling hook up to one of the enormous windows right above the gates and climbed up.

Sarita watched how he entered the window, turned and slowly walked to the right of the building. She looked around to make sure nobody had seen her, crouched and waited in the shadows. She waited there until she was absolutely sure that no one had seen or heard her.

Being certain of this, she got up, stepped out of the shadows and made her way to one of the small doors at the back of the fortress. She examined the locking mechanism of the door and frowned; she knew Sephiroth feared man nor beast, but to leave an open invitation like this. She shook her head; why should he have a high quality security system? Only lunatics and suicidal maniacs would try to break in here, the overlords own fortress, where the supreme Hellion army is stationed.

But still, a little voice in her head told her that everything went too easy. She never imagined that Kuno's suicide mission would clear a path directly into the lion's den.

Many times before people had tried to defy the overlord, and they all ended in an early grave. Why should this time be any different? When she broke the locks code, she looked over her shoulder to see if no one had spotted her yet. Sarita took a deep breath and slipped through the opening.

As she entered the hall, her hart missed one beat; right in front of her stood seven of the elite Hellion warriors: the Cyrus.

The Cyrus, none of the other Hellions where more feared by man. Not because they where the strongest or the most vicious, but because they used to be human once. And because of their human form, they could easily infiltrate resistance camps and slaughter all the humans inside. This tactic was used on almost all of the bases owned by the resistance. After a while humans started to mistrust each other because anyone could be a Cyrus, so the resistance against Sephiroth slowly bled to death. That was the reason that they didn't let any outsider get involved in their plans.

The Cyrus hadn't notice Sarita yet, and she didn't plan to stick around until they did. As fast possible and without making a noise, she turned and tried the door: it already fell in its lock.

(Dammit… not now, it can't end like this!)

She pressed herself against the wall and tried to hide in the shadows. The hallway was badly lit so she could easily hide herself for now. From her hiding place she searched the hallway for a better place to hide. She couldn't find one: slowly the sound of her own heartbeat filled her ears, leaving no room for anything else. (Gotta be a way, gotta be… then where the hell is it… c'mon girl, pull yerself together, this isn't the first time… No don't think about it!) Sarita blocked away the memories of her first encounter with the Cyrus and focused on the Cyrus in the hall. They hadn't noticed her yet, but if one of them turned, she would be seen for sure. She tried to make herself even smaller that she already was and started to tremble all over. Suddenly she heard a sound coming from the door: it sounded as if someone entered a security code to open the door. She held her breath and prayed to the Gods whom abandoned them a long time ago. But they didn't answer, the door opened.

Kyrios found his way through the many hallways and corridors the fortress had. He'd encountered some patrols, but not as many as he'd expected, maybe Sephiroth was overconfident and didn't expect that anyone was stupid enough to sneak in here or maybe it was something else. Whatever the reason, Kyrios was glad things were the way they were. He heard the sound of another patrol coming his way, and rushed through an open door. He carefully closed the door, after that he looked through the room: it looked like he got himself in a heap of trouble busting into this room, the room had one huge window in it and outside the window was AJIT WEAPON'S rest room, and AJIT was home.

"Oh shit!"

Kyrios opened the door but just before he could go out the room, he heard some voices outside:

"Why do we have to feed it again?"

"Just do as you're told for once."

"Yeah but, we fed it yesterday and the day before, so why do we have to do it again?"

"Just shut up will ya!"

"Okay, but I still don't see why I have to feed it again. I wasn't summoned out of hell just to feed a WEAPON! I am one of the most feared Hellions of all time, I am…"

"Shut up, I don't give a damn who you are nor do I care if you are the most feared Hellion or not! Just feed the damn beast and stop you're yapping!"

Kyrios jumped over a small table that stood close to a wall and laid down besides it. The two minions entered the room and the one that didn't stop complaining pushed a button and a small cage got lowered in AJIT'S chamber. Inside the cage where seven humans, all of them saw AJIT and they began to scream.

"Ok OK, I know that I complained a lot on the way down here, but I must say that this never gets boring."

Kyrios tried to see what was going on in the other room: the humans where still screaming and AJIT didn't move.

"What's wrong?"

"Uuuuh dunno, it isn't moving. Think it's dead? Can't be! Hey AJIT! Kill them will ya, their screams are getting on my nerves!"

"Shouldn't we report this?"

"Huh? Yeah guess you're right. Lemme kill them first OK?"

"NO!"

"Huh? What? No? Wadda you mean no? Why not? Dammit man, you're no fun!"

The minion turned to face his partner, but instead of seeing the, even in their standards, ugly face of his comrade, he stood eye in eye with a human. The human gave him a grin and wiped some blood from his face with a Hellion claw. He placed his hands on his hips and spit on the floor. The minion blinked and looked at the floor; there laid the remains of his pal. 

"Whoa man, that doesn't look to healthy, you know!"

The minion looked Kyrios in the eyes and growled.

"Say you're prayers, there's a funeral coming soon."

"Yup, yours!"

Kyrios used one of the claws of the Hellion he'd already killed and chopped off the others head in one swift blow, the head of the minion hit the floor with a thud.

"Damn man, do you have any idea how long it will take until my head is attached firmly on my body again? And aren't you supposed to run like hell when you see one of us?"

Kyrios cleaved the minion's body in two. Both halves fell on the ground and dissolved.

"Oh man, now I need to breed a new body. Get over here so I can bite you're toes off."

"Shut up!"

Kyrios walked to the window and looked at AJIT: it still lay there, motionless.

"So the feared AJIT is dead eh, so that's why it didn't attack when Kuno raised hell out there."

"Don't think I'll let you get out with this information!"

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"

Kyrios kicked against the minion's head: it flew across the room and splashed against the wall, it fell on the ground behind the door.

"Shit man that hurts, you know."

Kyrios walked to the door, took hold of it, and bashed it several times against the head. He looked at his handy work: all that remained of the head was one big messy spot on the floor.

"Well, I guess this would have hurt even more. Now where is Sarita?"

When the door opened, Sarita hid herself behind it. A man walked in, something about him wasn't right; the way he sneaked in indicated that he wasn't one of the Cyrus and judging his appearance he couldn't be a Hellion. He stood there a few seconds to let his eyes adjust to the light in the hallway. After that he closed the door, leaving Sarita out in the open again. The man didn't notice her or he merely ignored her presance because he walked directly towards the Cyrus. He grabbed the huge sword he carried on his back and prepared to attack them.

Sarita moved somewhat out of the shadows to get a better view; the stranger must have heard her move because he looked over his shoulder and searched the hallway for any type of movement.

Not knowing if the man standing there was good or bad, Sarita held her breath and tried not to move. He didn't see her and focused on the Cyrus again. There he stood, holding his sword ready to attack but he didn't move a muscle; all he did was observe the Cyrus.

"…………………Dead?"

Sarita heard these words and sighed: the Cyrus where dead. The man walked over to the Cyrus and inspected the bodies.

"………How?"

Sarita let go of a nervous giggle; she was on edge and the reasons of her fear turned out to be dead bodies, standing in a bad light hall.

"Who goes?"

(Really smart move girl, giggling like mad on a time like this. Now let's hope this is one of the good guys.)

Decided to take a chance, Sarita slowly crawled out of her hiding place. She made sure the stranger could she her hands, so he wouldn't attack her out of fear that she was hiding a weapon of some sort.

"Erm… I go. Well, you know what I mean."

The man walked towards her, never losing her out of his sight.

"Friend or foe?"

"Friend… I guess."

Sarita could see the man's face clearly now: he wasn't her age, he seemed to be younger. Like 19 or so, but his posture told a different story, like he was a mature warrior. She looked at his eyes and let out a terrified cry. His eyes glowed, just like the eyes of the Cyrus did. Kyrios once told her that was caused by the large amounts of mako energy the Cyrus where exposed to.

"Y… you… you're… a… C… C… Cyrus!"

Sarita turned and ran towards the door as fast as she could. Only to bump into the closed door and cursing herself to be so stupid for running towards a closed door, with no other way out. She turned to face the man and shouted:

"Don't come near me! I have weapons and I know how to use them!"

"Then use them."

"Wha… what!?"

"Use you're weapons or don't use them, it's you're call. But whatever you decide, stop screaming, you'll alert every monster in this building if you keep screaming."

"Huh… o, right… sorry, I freaked. I thought you where one of the Cyrus."

The man gave her a blank expression.

"You know, the Cyrus, the monsters that appear to be humans but are not."

The man didn't response to her words; he just stood there, looking at her.

"Come on, you must have heard of them before, they've killed almost all the members of the rebellion."

The man placed his feet slightly apart and moved his sword in a position so he could strike her down at any moment.

"Hey wait a minute. I said I was a friend, don't you believe me?"

Without saying a word, he leaped forward and threw her aside, at the same time the door behind her swung open and three Hellions walked in. The first one got cleaved in two by the huge sword of the stranger. He kicked the second one against its head and pressed it against the wall with his foot. The third one had a second to understand what was going on and attacked the stranger. The blade of the man's sword cleaved through the air and chopped off the arms of the third Hellion. The Hellion cried out in pain and tried to run. The man beheaded it before it got out of range. The Hellion that was still pressed against the wall tried to break free, but the man simply raised the pressure on its throat and soon the Hellion's struggle for freedom ended as its throat was crushed. The stranger cleaned the blade of his sword using a piece of cloth ripped from the clothes of one of his victims.

"Whoa, what happened? It all went so fast. What are you? One of the Cyrus that turned against its masters?"

Sarita was amazed how fast the man had eliminated the Hellions. Never had she seen anyone oppose the Hellions like him, it was almost as if he didn't fear them.

"You can speak, can't you, of course you can, you did it a minute ago. So what's you're story? What are you doing here? How come that you're eyes glow like that… I'm sorry, I think these are my nerves speaking, usually I don't talk so much… not that I don't talk at all, more like I don't talk as much as I do right now…"

The man sheathed his sword, and looked at her with a frown on his forehead. Sarita felt a little uncomfortable after making such a fool out of herself, and the way this man looked at her didn't make her feel any better. There was something about this man that made her feel like the small kid that needed to be saved again. Sarita took a deep breath and shook of the feeling.

"Again sorry for my behavior, let me introduce myself, I'm Charity, Sarita Charity. Um… So who are you?"

Sarita held her hand up for the stranger. He looked at it and sighed.

"I'm Cadwgawn."

After he told her his name, Cadwgawn turned and walked towards the Cyrus again. Sarita raised an eyebrow and shrugged; she kind of expected that he didn't fully introduce himself, but that he would be this blunt. She turned to close the door and after that she walked to Cadwgawn and stared at the bodies of the Cyrus.

"Why did you think I was one of them?"

Sarita stared horrified at the maimed bodies of the Cyrus and didn't hear what Cadwgawn said. She crouched and examined one of the bodies, the body didn't show any cuts or bruises; it seemed that it had died a natural death. 

"Well?"

Sarita suddenly remembered that she wasn't alone there and looked up to Cadwgawn.

"Well… I think they died a natural death."

Cadwgawn stared at Sarita and sighed.

"That's not what I meant. Why did you think I was one of them?"

Sarita got up slowly and looked Cadwgawn directly in his eyes.

"Well, you see… it's you're eyes. They have a distinct glow in them, just like the Cyrus have. A friend of mine told me once it had to do with the high amounts of mako energy they are exposed to in order to grant them their power."

Cadwgawn thought about what Sarita just told him, he never thought that his eyes could be the reason that most people have been avoiding him. Thinking back on the days he spent in the slave villages, this made sense; everyone there had encountered the Cyrus before, and seeing the same glow in his eyes made them think that he was one of them, just like this girl did just now.

"Ok, so it's the eyes. But tell me this then, why could the Cyrus be used to infiltrate the resistance camps if they are so easily to detect?"

Sarita frowned as she thought about this.

"Maybe they used contact lenses? I'm not sure, but someone that could tell us all about this is here with us in this fortress."

"You mean there are more humans here? And here I was thinking I was the only one stupid enough to go here."

"We're not stupid, only despaired. We came here to slay the one that holds us in his tyrannical grasp. We're here to kill Sephiroth! And what is you're reason to be here?"

Cadwgawn stepped over one body that lay on the ground and walked further into the fortress.

"That's none of you're business."

Sarita jumped over the body and mumbled; 'o now isn't this great, the only human being we probably find in here alive is the lone wolf type'.


	2. Part two.

Part two

Part two. Thorir.

"Pant, pant… damn, damn, dammit!"

Kyrios ran as fast as he could through the small hallways. The Hellions weren't far behind him anymore.

(Shouldn't have tried to free those people, why couldn't I wait until I was on the way out? Damn, I've never been a hero, picked a good time to become one!)

He nearly tripped as he made a quick right turn; blinking over his shoulder he saw what made the floor so slippery, it was covered with blood.

(What is going on here? Everywhere you look there are dead bodies, and all of them used to be Cyrus.)

Kyrios glanced over his shoulder to see if the Hellions where still following him but didn't see them. He reduced his speed and turned right at the nearest intersection. There he stopped running and leaned against the wall to catch his breath; the Hellions had chased him down the halls for a long time.

(So… are the Hellions and the Cyrus fighting each other? Or is there another group at work here? Shit! Sarita! I should have hooked up with her a long time ago. Hope she's still alive, shouldn't have dragged her into this. Where the hell am I? This fortress is like a maze, don't know which way goes up or which way goes down.)

A noise from the other end of the hall alerted Kyrios that someone or something was coming his way. He checked his weapons, only four clips left.

(Well there goes the 'standing your ground' idea, let's try the other thing I've made Avalanche big with; running like hell.)

Kyrios sprinted back into the hallway he'd run through before, only to end up in the arms of his first problem. But the hellions where facing the other way, and didn't see Kyrios.

(Woops, wrong way!)

Kyrios turned, but the blood on his boots made him slip and with a loud thud he met the floor. Alerted by this ruckus, the Hellions turned and saw the pray that nearly escaped them. They immediately re-started their chase, growling and clawing at Kyrios.

(Man… don't these guys ever get tired!)

Kyrios got back on his feet as fast as he could, but the Hellions gained ground to fast. His eyes searched the hall for anything he could use as a weapon or a way out. About halfway down the hallway there was a lid or something, Kyrios didn't know where the opening would lead, but he decided he'd rather take his chances with whatever's down there, than with these guys up here.

The Hellions where getting close, he could feel their stinking breath in his neck. This gave him the adrenaline boost he needed to reach the lid in time. With the last remains of the adrenaline boost, he pulled the lid open and jumped down. Just in time, he could feel the claws of the Hellions strike at him, but they only ripped his pants.

It was a long way down, and a terrible smell rose out of the pipeline.

After a long drop, Kyrios landed on top of something soft and mushy. He couldn't see what it was; this room didn't have any lights. He tried to move and his hands became smeared with something sticky and wet. Kyrios raised one hand to see what it was but couldn't make out what it could be.

The room he had landed in had the distinct odor no one would ever forget if they'd smelled it once: the smell of rotting meat.

(What is this? The smell, damn, even my own cooking smells better.)

A sound caught Kyrios ears; it was a vague banging sound. It sounded like someone put their sneakers in the dryer and left them spinning.

Kyrios tried to pinpoint the origin of the sound, but the sound seemed to emanate from all around. The banging grew louder and louder.

Kyrios grabbed a gun he'd placed in a holster on his upper-right-thigh and made sure that it was loaded. Satisfied that it was, he did the same with the gun in the left holster.

The banging sound had grown to an ear shattering clatter; it kind of reminded Kyrios to the loud banging shit which the youngsters dared to call music.

When Kyrios prepared himself for whatever would enter this room, his mouth curled to a grim smile; at least he'd take some Hellion scum down with him.

The first movements occurred near the vent duct he used to escape the Hellions.

Kyrios didn't hesitate and fired away at whatever used the duct to come down. The blasts of his guns lit the room and revealed the source of the terrible stench. The images Kyrios saw where warped by the stroboscope effect of the gunfire, but one thing was sure: the room was filled with dead bodies, human bodies mutilated beyond belief.

(What the hell's this place! No way I'm gonna end up here like those poor souls!)

The room when dark again after the first invading wave ended, though not silent. The other ventilation ducts where ready to cough up out their loads.

Kyrios reloaded his weapons and waited with his eyes wide open for the next wave. He didn't have to wait long; all the ducts spewed out their loads at the same time.

"For Kuno, the planet and Avalanche, die bastards die!"

Kyrios opened fire and didn't stop firing even when the guns fired their last bullets.

"Damn Kyrios! What's taking you so long?"

Sarita was getting impatient of waiting for Kyrios, she could think of a million other things to do right now and waiting in a fortress with death lurking around every corner for someone that most properly dead wasn't one of them.

The one that introduced himself as Cadwgawn had already left, saying that waiting was one of the worst possible things to do in a place like this. Sarita sighed and tried her comlink one more time: still no reaction.

'Click.'

Sarita looked around her; what was that sound?

'Clang.'

Sarita took her guns in her hands and whispered: "Kyrios?"

Nobody answered her so she left the room to investigate the hall. When she got outside she didn't see anyone, and after waiting for some time for another movement, that didn't happen, she holstered her guns again and walked back to the meeting point.

Back there she picked her comlink from her belt and tried to contact Kyrios once more. There was still no response on the other side and Sarita begun thinking the worst.

She sat down and looked through the room, it was hard to believe that Kyrios had come back here after the first time he tried to kill Sephiroth, and even harder to believe was that the entire place hadn't changed much afterwards.

'Ka-blam!'

Sarita jumped up: this time she was sure she heard something outside.

'Skloff.'

She looked at the door: it sounded as if something was banged against it, something different than metal, it sounded as if a human body was slammed against the door with great force.

Without thinking she jumped over the object she sat on before and hide in the shadow.

The door was torn out of its hinges right after she landed. Pieces of the door landed on top of her, leaving large splinters stick out her skin.

Ignoring the pain, Sarita carefully peeked out her hiding place and immediately she wished she didn't.

What she saw looked like a 'normal' Hellion, but wasn't. It looked like the WEAPONS had given birth to a new WEAPON the size of a large Hellion, a very large Hellion.

It was four times the size of a human, with large horns growing out its spine. The use of these horns where clear to see: it already carried four bodies of its victims on them.

It's hands had long 'claws' and spikes covered the lower parts of its arms. In its left hand/claw it carried a human in an army outfit.

The human was still alive, barely.

Sarita's eyes filled with tears: there, in the hands of this 'thing', was the person that was like a father for her.

The monster threw off the bodies from its back and threw Kyrios next to them. It grabbed one of them and bites off its head and part of the shoulders. It made disgusting sounds while chewing the chunk of human in its mouth. It finished the body in five bites, and was still hungry.

Sarita's hiding place was right next to the place where the bodies lay, and she could clearly make out the face of Kyrios. It was covered with large slashes, and so was the rest of his body. It was obvious that Kyrios tried everything he could to escape, but nothing could escape this monstrosity.

Kyrios tried to open his eyes, but that's not an easy thing to do with a crushed eye socked. He managed to open one eye and stared Sarita directly in the eyes.

The monster grabbed another corpse and saw that Kyrios was still alive. Its face turned into something that seemed like a smile and it spoke with a rasping voice: "Don't die! Blood taste good when alive, bad when dead! Thorir don't like blood bad, like blood good!"

After that it started eating again.

Sarita could clearly see the fear on Kyrios face, he tried to speak, but his cracked lips couldn't form any words. Sarita could imagine what he tried to say, but she couldn't do that: she couldn't kill him to end his suffering.

Kyrios tried to move closer to her and by doing so; he unintentionally switched on his comlink.

Sarita's comlink crackled once to indicate it opened up a link. She immediately grabbed it and press the silenced button, but it was too late, the monster had heard the sound.

It lifted the casket Sarita hid behind, leaving her exposed. Immediately she grabbed for her weapons and fired away at the thing in front of her. She could clearly see her bullets enter the beast's body, but it didn't seem to bother him much. It threw away the casket and again it seemed to smile.

"Must be Thorir lucky day, new yum yum's, woman yum yum's! Tastes so many better than man, lucky day it is."

The beast totally forgot about Kyrios now that he found a meal that tasted so much better to him. Its enormous claw moved slowly towards Sarita.

Sarita re-loaded her guns as fast as she could but the enormous claw closed around her before she could fire another round. Entangled in the monsters grip, did Sarita the only thing what was left to do; she screamed.

"Leave the woman alone and face a worthy foe, beast of darkness!"

A male voice came from the ruined remains of the door.

"More munchies? Lucky, lucky day this is."

The monster Thorir turned its head to face the new meal that presented itself.

"Lucky day? We'll see about that."

A man wearing a snow-white blouse and dark khakis covered with a black cape stood inside the ruined doorpost. His face could not be seen because it was covered by shadows, the only features that could be distinguished where his eyes. They had the same glow as the Cyrus had, but this man was not one of them, he was more like Cadwgawn. The half long hair of the man was silver of color and a scarlet bandana kept it from falling in his eyes. Stepping out of the shadow, he took a sheathed katana from within his cape and held it up in the air.

"Man has knife, Thorir not need knife, Thorir has claws and teeth."

The silver haired man standing in the opening raised his katana, unsheathed it and got ready to attack.

"Now, put down the lady and fight, that is, you can also run if you're too scared to fight."

Thorir let out a loud roar and threw Sarita to its other victims.

"I said put her down, please forgive the beast for its manners miss, I'll teach him to show some respect for a lady."

The beast turned in and it let out a roar when it raised its arms. It roared again and barraged towards the man.

Even with this enormous beast storming towards him, the man didn't move. He waited until the monstrosity was close enough, leaped over it, slashing it with his katana. The man landed elegantly and left a cut on the beast from shoulder to hip. Thorir growled and turned hacking at the man with its enormous claws, but to no avail, the man evaded the claws so all the monster hit was air.

The man leaped forward, thrusting his katana between Thorirs eyes. The monster stumbled backwards, clawing at anything in its surrounding. The barraging monster redecorated the fortress by demolishing a wall. Then it reached for the blade, pulled it out its head and threw it to the ground.

"Figures, for this to succeed there had to be a brain inside its thick scull."

The man rolled over to his sword and picked it up from the ground.

"Thorir now mad, will crush you bad, nothing be left of you, no eating for me, but you crushed!"

"Yeah whatever!"

Thorir and the man stormed towards each other and as they clashed, they cleaved their weapons through their opponents. They stood there for a moment; their backs facing each other, the only sound filling the room was the breath of both fighters.

"Ha! You missed Thorir, Thorir still…"

The monster fell to one knee as its upper body slowly separated from its lower body.

It fell on the ground with a splat, blood squirting out the many sliced internal organs.

The man fell to one knee and placed a hand on the place where Thorir had struck him. Blood seeped out the wound, staining his snow-white blouse.

"Just a scratch, I'll survive. He nearly got me though, must be losing my touch."

He got up and flattened his clothes. He took the bandana he used to keep his hear out of his eyes and strapped it around the wound, covering the bloodstain in his blouse. He cleaned the blade and sheathed his katana. After doing this he turned to face Sarita, trying to make it as dramatically as possible.

But it was not a fair lady he faced, but he stared directly into the blood-shot eyes of the monster Thorir. The man was pinned against the floor by one of the claws before he could do anything against it. Thorir's other claw trusted down to squish him like a fly.

The man closed his eyes and waited for the ending blow. He heard a swish and a thud followed by a howl coming from Thorir. The man opened one eye and looked up at the bloody stump where a shoulder used to be. He scouted the room to see who just had saved his life. He saw a blond man wielding an enormous sword standing next to the severed arm of Thorir.

"Munchies are hard to eat, but are foolish to fight! Thorir heal himself, be good as new, kill humans, eat humans!"

Thorir grabbed his detached arm and connected it back to the blooded hole. The arm and shoulder grew back together and where ready to be used again.

"See? No can die, Thorir can. Forever Thorir is!"

The silver haired man got up from the ground and drew his sword.

"Hey blond! Let's get him together okay!"

Cadwgawn nodded and leaped in the air.

The silver haired man jumped forward.

Not knowing which human to attack, Thorir stood there, indecisive.

Both swords struck him at the same time, cutting trough the flesh with immense power. The blades cut him again, even before the blood gushing out the wounds could reach the floor.

Cadwgawn and the silver haired man didn't stop hacking and slicing until there was no more left of Thorir than a big pile of bones, entrails and chops of flesh.

"That takes care of that, thanks blond."

"………We'd better get out of here, the monster didn't lie when he said that he's forever."

"What do you mean blond?"

Cadwgawn nodded towards the pile that used to be Thorir.

"He's already regenerating himself as we speak."

"Then we'll chop him to pieces again, we make a good team blond."

"………So you want to spent an eternity chopping a monster to pieces? Go ahead, I've got better things to do."

Cadwgawn walked over to where Sarita had dragged Kyrios during the battle against Thorir. Cadwgawn didn't know the man, but he could see he was in a bad state and that he meant a lot to Sarita.

"This the one you wanted me to meet?"

Sarita looked up and nodded, her eyes where filled with tears. She tried to attend the wounds Kyrios had, but there where to many. Slowly all the life left Kyrios and Sarita knew it. She tried another recovery spell but the magic had lost almost all of its power.

"Here maybe this will help."

Cadwgawn handed her a potion.

Sarita thanked him and tried to make Kyrios swallow the fluid.

It seemed to help a little, because he opened his eyes. When he saw Sarita's face he smiled and tried to speak. Then he noticed Cadwgawn and his eyes glimmered with hope. Kyrios tried to sit up but there where to many broken bones in his body. He looked at Sarita and spoke to her, very slowly; "You've found… him. Good… cough… girl Sarita. You've …gurgle… found him."

Kyrios looked at Cadwgawn and smiled; "You've …cough, cough… came back. I …gurgle knew you would. Welcome couch back …"

Kyrios last breath whispered: "Avalanche."

Sarita bowed over Kyrios and started crying, her tears dripped on Kyrios forehead.

Cadwgawn looked at her and didn't know what to say or do, so he left her alone with her grief.

The man with silver hear walked towards Cadwgawn and nodded at Thorir's remains.

"He's pulling himself together faster and faster. If you don't want to fight him again, we'd better get out of here blond."

"…Okay, and the name's Cadwgawn not blond, got it."

"Sure, by the way, my name is Dehat, nice to meet you, blond."

Cadwgawn ignored the last remark and looked at Sarita. He felt sorry for her, loosing two close friends on the same day.

Cadwgawn and Dehat gave Sarita some time to say goodbye to her friend.

"Hey blond?"

"…"

"What was that just now anyway? That man saw you and he worshiped you. What was in that potion you gave him?"

"…I noticed his reaction too, but it had noting to do with the potion. It was like he recognized me or something, maybe he thought I was someone else."

A growl behind them ended their conversation abruptly.

Simultaneously they turned and saw that Thorir had fully restored himself. The monster wasn't bluffing as it said that it lived forever. It let out a loud laugh when it saw the surprised looks on Cadwgawn and Dehat's faces.

"Told you, Thorir forever! Now die!"

Thorir's eyes started to glow and a red glow formed around his claws. Both of the fighters drew their weapons and moved away from where Sarita was. The monster growled and fired two red-hot fire blasts from its claws, scorching the floor where Cadwgawn and Dehat stood a second ago.

"Whoa! This thing is still capable of using magic!"

Dehat shouted out.

"Looks like he's got another trick up his sleeve!"

Cadwgawn nodded at a little red gemstone on one of the monsters spikes. The gem started to glow intense when Thorir focused to use the powers stored inside.

"That color! We must hurry and stop him before it can use the power of this summon materia!"

Dehat rushed towards the monster to stop it before it could complete the summoning. Cadwgawn wanted to jump forwards but hesitated and looked at Sarita; she would be killed if she stayed out there in the open. He looked around and saw a huge bookcase standing not far away from her.

"What are you waiting for, an invitation? Come here and help me with this thing!"

Dehat was trying to fight Thorir but couldn't land one single blow; the monster had drew up some kind of force field that protected him from physical attacks.

"Be with you shortly, got to take care of something first!"

Cadwgawn jumped towards the bookcase and tried to pull it away from the wall. It was heavier than he'd expected but he managed to pull it towards where Sarita sat. There he tipped it over, providing some kind of shelter for Sarita.

"That takes care of that, now for our other problem."

Cadwgawn joined Dehat who was still trying to find an opening in the field that protected Thorir.

"It's no use blond, this field is way to strong to be broken. Guess we'll just have to face whatever it's summoning."

"…Here it comes!"

The light that the spirit emitted blinded Dehat and Cadwgawn for a moment and when their eyesight returned they could see that Thorir had summoned the fire-spirit Ifrit.

"Well blond, guess this is it, time to pay the piper."

Cadwgawn shook his head and stormed forwards, "Not yet, there's still a way to survive!"

"Yeah, but that would involve running the other way, not facing a elemental-spirit!"

Ifrit saw that Cadwgawn stormed at him and growled. It focused its energy and launched itself forwards in a cocoon of fire.

Cadwgawn dodged the attack and turned to face Ifrit. The flames had charred his hair a bit, but other than that he was fine. Not knowing what to do against this spirit, Cadwgawn grabbed the red gem that was attached to his sword and hoped for the best.

"Eat this!"

Cadwgawn was surrounded by a blinding light and disappeared to make place for a half naked woman. The woman had a silver-gray skin color and the only clothes she wore were a bikini made out of ice.

Dehat witnessed this with amazement; this man had the ability to summon the ice elemental-spirit Shiva.

When Ifrit saw Shiva it snarled out of fury and focused it's powers to their maximum. Flames engulfed the entire room and the air became too hot to breathe normally.

Dehat jumped behind the bookcase to find some shelter from the flames.

Shiva slowly opened her eyes and looked at Ifrit, slowly raising her left arm cooling the air around her to a sub-zero temperature.

Ifrit rushed at her, flames scorching everything around him.

Shiva lowered her arm and large spears made out of ice appeared in the air, piercing Ifrit's body.

The intense heat that Ifrit produced melt the ice spears, but the melt water drained him from his strength. He disappeared back to his own dimension with a grumble, forcing Thorir to return to the battlefield.

After defeating Ifrit, Shiva wasn't needed anymore and went back to her own dimension.

Thorir looked around him and saw the damage that Ifrit's flames had left. The entire room was blackened and smelt like someone had left his or her meat to long on a barbeque. Thorir let out a loud guffaw.

"Humans stupid to fight Thorir! Humans now know!"

Suddenly it stopped laughing and looked down at its chest: a sword had been run through him and the point could be seen sticking out. Thorir went berserk when it realized that the humans where still alive and tried to reach for the human who had forced the sword through him.

Cadwgawn did his best to hold on to his sword but lost his grip and was sent flying through the air. He landed near the door, bumped his head and lost consciousness.

Dehat had heard the barrage of the monster and re-joined the fight. He saw that Cadwgawn was unconsciousness and tried to get the raging monsters attention by hacking off some of the spikes on its back. This did the job and Thorir launched a fireball at him.

Dodging the ball, Dehat landed right in the claws of Thorir.

Holding on to its prey, Thorir moved his claw to his mouth.

The fight between the two spirits had weakened the ceiling and a huge part of it tumbled and landed on top of Thorir, saving Dehat from a certain death.

Cadwgawn regained consciousness and saw that Dehat was stuck in one of Thorir's claws. He got up and hurried to help Dehat out but Thorir didn't let go of his prey.

"Stop fooling around and just cut the damn arm off!"

"…I lost my weapon."

"You what!"

"I lost my weapon alright!"

"O great, well why don't you summon Shiva again?"

"……I don't know how."

"Here take my sword, now cut me free!"

Cadwgawn took Dehat's katana and chopped the arm off, freeing Dehat.

"So where did you lose you're sword?"

Cadwgawn pointed at Thorir who lay buried beneath a piece of the ceiling.

Dehat looked at the rubble and asked, "He's got it?"

"…Yes."

Dehat started laughing, "Well, have fun when you try to get it back. Maybe he'll give it to you if you ask it politely."

Cadwgawn stared at the ground with a troubled took on his face, causing Dehat to laugh even harder than he already did.

"Now me really mad, don't laugh at Thorir." Came a muffled voice from underneath the rubble. This caused Dehat to really go into a fit, little tear rolled over his face from laughing. Even Cadwgawn smiled for a second, but his face straightened when he thought about how to get his sword back.

"That's enough, how are we going to get my sword back?"

Dehat whipped some tears from his face and looked at Cadwgawn.

"Well blond… I don't know. You think of that, I'll sit here until you figured something out."

Dehat sat down on the floor and watched Cadwgawn with a big smile on his face.

Cadwgawn glared at him and raised his hands, "Come on, what do you want me to do against that monster without a weapon? Or should I just wish my weapon back to me?"

After saying these words, a small crack appeared in the slab that covered Thorir.

Cadwgawn lost his temper and kicked against a small rock.

The crack grew a little bigger.

Cadwgawn walked over the slab and stopped when Dehat said something, Cadwgawn didn't notice the small crack that grew bigger and bigger.

"Just one more remark like that and I swear…"

Cadwgawn stopped talking when the ground beneath him seemed to explode. He fell down and looked up with amazement; the reason that the ground had erupted was his own sword, it had broken through the ground and now it floated in the air.

"Whoa! How did you do that?"

Dehat was even more surprised than Cadwgawn.

"I don't know."

"There's a lot you don't know."

A small piece fell from the ceiling, landing on top of Cadwgawn's head. He looked up and saw that it wouldn't be long before the roof would collapse. He walked to his sword and said when he took hold of it: "Time to get moving."

"My thoughts exactly blond."

Sarita still held Kyrios in her arms and it seemed that what was going on around her didn't reach her anymore.

Dehat kneeled next to her and said; "Time to go miss, I can understand you're woes, but this isn't the safest place to be. Your friend knew this and still he came here for some reason. Whatever the reason was, try to honor him by for filling his destiny."

Sarita didn't respond to the words nor did she react when Dehat placed a hand on her shoulder.

Dehat shook his head; "It's no good, she's in shock. We must carry her out of here."

Cadwgawn nodded and kneeled in front of Sarita. He softly toughed her shoulder and without knowing why he whispered: "Come with me little one, I'll protect you."

These words hit the right spot because suddenly Sarita stared Cadwgawn directly in the eyes.

"Wha, what? You… Those where… But you're not…!?"

Red circles where around her eyes, formed by crying, but now her eyes weren't sad anymore. Her eyes shined out a new longing, a longing she never had before.

Cadwgawn stared her back in her eyes, wondering where these words just came from, and why Sarita stared at him the way she did.

Dehat looked at the ceiling and saw that it would crumble at any time, so he tapped Cadwgawn on the shoulder and said with a huge grin on his face; "C'mon Casanova, we got to move, the roof will come down any second now."

Cadwgawn got up and offered Sarita his hand. She stared at it for a second and took hold of it. She got up with the help of Cadwgawn and looked at Kyrios again. She still couldn't believe that he was dead; some part of her thought this was all a bad dream and when she'd wake up she would she his smiling face again.

Cadwgawn grabbed her and gently pushed her out of the room. They left the room just in time: the ceiling came crashing down making it impossible to re-enter the room again.

Sarita walked to the door opening and leaned against the doorpost.

Cadwgawn watched her as she stood there crying. He didn't know what to say to her so he thought it would be best if he'd let her alone for a moment.

Dehat kicked him and nodded at Sarita.

"Go to her blond, she needs a shoulder to cry on right now."

"……And then what?"

"O man, do I have to tell you everything, just go to her."

Cadwgawn walked over to Sarita and looked at her. Still a little unsure what to do he looked back and saw Dehat ushering him to put his arm around her.

Cadwgawn shrugged and slowly he raised his arm.

Sarita turned her head and looked at him with a surprised look on her face.

"What are you doing?"

"……Nothing, just wanted to make sure you're alright."

Cadwgawn turned away and hoped that she didn't see that he blushed a little.

"Thanks for you're concern but I'm alright now. We all knew the danger of going here, but we also knew how important our mission was. And now I have to press on even harder, for Kyrios, Kuno and for myself. But I can't do it alone so… could you help me?"

Dehat had heard every word and responded before Cadwgawn had the chance; "Of course he'll help, right blond. And you can count me in too."

Sarita noticed Dehat for the first time and stared at him with her mouth open. She'd never seen anyone with silver hair before.

Dehat saw her staring and bowed; "I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet. The name's Dehat and I'm sort of a sword for hire."

He took one of Sarita's hands and gave it a gentle kiss. He straightened himself and looked at where Cadwgawn stood just a second ago.

"Hey blond! Where are you going?"

Cadwgawn looked over his shoulder and shrugged.

"I don't know, to tell the truth, I'm not even sure why I came to this place. But something tells me that whatever it is I'm looking for is in here somewhere. Come, I saw a room with a small spring this way. We can fresh up there and figure out what to do next."

He walked further without waiting for their reaction.

Dehat looked at Sarita and gave her a boyish grin: "Let's follow him before he gets himself into trouble."

Sarita nodded and wondered what this was all about, maybe something she said. That reminded her; "Hey Cadwgawn, Wait up! About what you said to me earlier! Cadwgawn wait!"


	3. Part three.

Part three

Part three. Revelations.

Sarita and Dehat followed Cadwgawn to the room he'd mentioned. When they came there, Sarita was amazed of its appearance; it looked like it was a room taken right out of a five star hotel.

The walls of the room where shaded deep red and seemed to emit a gentle glow, providing just enough light to see from one end of the room to the other.

In the middle of the room was the 'small spring' Cadwgawn told them about. The spring was more a sort of bath, big enough to swim in if they wanted to. 

Standing lined up next to the bath where statues representing the elemental spirits and carved in the head of the bath was Leviathan, the water elemental. The water inside the bath was crystal-clear, neither one of them had ever seen water this pure.

Cadwgawn sat down on the side of the bath and moved a lever. This triggered a mechanism that brought the statues to life, squirting water into the bath. He looked at the astonished look on Sarita's face and smiled with delight. He motioned the others to sit down and stuck his head under one of the squirting statues. He felt refreshed by the water and looked at his newfound friends.

"So… what do you think of this place?"

Sarita folded her hands together and said softly; "It's beautiful. I've never seen anything like this before."

Dehat grinned and said; "I have, but after a little dispute about who should pay who, I was kicked out and they didn't let me in again."

Cadwgawn rolled his eyes and watched how Sarita splashed some of the fresh water on her face. He saw how the water flowed of her face, down her neck towards her bosom.

"It isn't polite to stare blond, even you should know that."

Cadwgawn promptly looked the other way, hoping that she hadn't notice that he'd stared at her.

Dehat laughed and settled himself against one of the statues.

"Who would have imagined that old Sephy had a place like this inside his fortress. Now than, what are you all doing here? Wait, I'll go first."

He closed his eyes and sighed: he seemed to think for a minute.

Cadwgawn was surprised by this but kept his silence.

Dehat started speaking with a deep voice: "Like I said before, nowadays I'm a sword for hire, kind of a mercenary, but I wasn't one until recently.

I used to live a somewhat normal life in one of the very last free places left to us humans. We never had any trouble with a WEAPON or the Hellion armies that roamed the planet; possibly they believed that no one would live in the harsh climate of the northern crater area.

We lived in wealth and didn't care about the troubles of the rest of the planet, we where quite selfish and didn't want to share anything so we kept our existence secrete to the world. This might have caused our own downfall, we weren't aware that a new kind of Dark soldier had been created by Sephiroth.

When one of our people found a half dead woman out in the snow, he took her in his home. This was the start of our demise. We where surprised that I wasn't the only human alive with the mako blessing. Yes, we knew why my eyes glowed the way they did. But the woman wasn't the same as me, the moment she was fully restored she rushed out and wasn't seen back for a long time.

When she returned she wasn't alone, but had at least a hundred men and women with her. We welcomed her back with open arms, thinking that we could create some sort of Utopia for the human race. But when they came inside they drew their weapons and killed everyone inside our city. I was the only one that was spared, why I still not know.

So I guess my reason of being here is to get my revenge, nothing more fancy than that, just plain old revenge. I didn't travel here directly though; I honed my skills with my katana first, that's why I became a sword for hire."

Dehat sighed again and swung his feet over the side of the bath and placed them in the water.

Cadwgawn studied Dehat's face and could see that there was more to the story that he'd told them. He decided not to ask too much about Dehat's past.

Dehat opened his eyes and looked at Sarita.

"And what about you? What is a lovely lady as yourself doing in a place like this?"

Sarita looked at Dehat and shrugged; "What's there to say? My friends and I decided to take matters in our own hands and we revived Avalanche. We came here to assassinate Sephiroth and by doing so we hoped to bring back a free life for everyone."

Dehat frowned and waded his feet through the water. 

"Yeah, but what's the story behind it all. Why did you decide to tale matters in your own hands?"

Sarita closed her eyes and shook her head; "There where so many reasons: For Kuno, a dear friend of mine, there was that his old hometown was transformed into a laboratory where the Cyrus had spawned from and the loss of his wife during an Hellion raid on the Village where he lived.

For Kyrios there was that he remembered how it used to be to live in freedom, he was born before Sephiroth took control over the planet. He was also the founder of the next Avalanche; he'd been here before and was one of the few that had survived the summoning of the WEAPONS.

He was also the one that had saved my life when I was just a little girl and all alone in this world.

And as for me? My reasons are somewhat the same as yours, to get revenge and to create a world where it is safe to have children. 'Couse that is all I've ever dreamed about, to live a peaceful life with a man and the children we'll have together."

Sarita stopped talking and looked at Cadwgawn.

"Now what I wanted to ask you was: why did you use precisely those words back there?"

Cadwgawn shrugged and stared at the statue in front of him.

"………Don't know. Why?"

"Well… those where exactly the words Kyrios spoke when he first found me."

"….O,….The words came out before I realized it. I…… I didn't know."

Cadwgawn got up and rummaged through his pockets, picked out a whetstone, after that he drew his sword and started to sharpen his blade.

Dehat smiled and said with a flair of amusement in his voice; "Don't pay to much attention to him, I think he's a little shy when it comes to girls."

Sarita giggled and stared at Cadwgawn.

"I think you're right Dehat, he's blushing."

Cadwgawn didn't know how to react and focused on sharpening his blade. He tried to do it as nonchalantly as possible but the fact that he'd became the center point of everyone's attention caused him do work with a little to much enthusiasm and he cut himself on the already razor-sharp blade. He suppressed a curse and put the bleeding finger in his mouth.

Sarita had watched his every move and walked up to him with a small bandage in her hand.

"Here, use this for you're finger."

Cadwgawn looked up at her and accepted the bandage. He wrapped the bandage around the small cut in his finger and tucked the whetstone back in his pockets; he was finished sharpening his sword for today.

Sarita saw how he'd wrapped the bandage around his finger and sighed; it was clear to see that he'd never used a bandage before.

"That's all wrong, I guess you need a woman's hand right now. No, don't resist, I know it's a small cut but still."

She grabbed his hand and unwrapped the bandage. Cadwgawn tried to pull his hand back but Sarita didn't let go and draped the bandage accordingly around the cut.

Cadwgawn watched her face and when she was finished she stared him directly in the eyes.

"Now, doesn't this feel much better?"

Cadwgawn tried to bend his finger but the bandage was draped to tightly around it.

"………I can't move my finger, I need my finger to guarantee a firm grip on my sword."

Dehat threw a pebble in the water next to Cadwgawn and some of the water splashed on him.

"Yeah, I've seen how firm you're grip was before. I don't think the bandage will change anything in that."

"But I… whatever!"

Cadwgawn tried to counter the remark but couldn't find the right words. He looked at Sarita who still held his hand and frowned.

Sarita saw this and realized that she still held his hand. She squeezed in it once and let go of it. She stood up silently and walked back to the place she'd sat before.

Dehat rummaged in one of his pockets and retrieved a package of cigarettes.

"Well, it looks like were not going anywhere soon, so I just as well can have a smoke."

He lighted one and sucked his lungs full with smoke. He offered the package to Cadwgawn after blowing out the smoke but Cadwgawn declined. Dehat looked at Sarita but she shook her head. Dehat placed the package on the ground next to him and took another hit.

"Okay blond, what's you're reason to be in here? Is it revenge like me, or is it a more noble goal?"

Cadwgawn shrugged and stood up. He walked around for a bit and sat down again. He looked at Dehat and shrugged again.

"……………To tell the truth, I don't know what I'm doing here."

Cadwgawn stood up again and walked towards one of the walls. There he turned and looked at Sarita.

"There's a lot of things that I don't know, or maybe better said, can't recall. All I can remember is that I woke up next to a large lake filled with a strange liquid three years ago. I don't have a single memory from before that time. I've been to a lot of places since that day, but everywhere I came people treated me as if I was some kind of monster, some kind of freak. It wasn't until today that I finally found out why people had treated me the way they did. If I hadn't met Sarita today, I wouldn't have known that it was the glow in my eyes that freaked people out."

Cadwgawn walked back to the side of the bath and sat down. He waded through the water with one hand and looked at Sarita.

"After I've roamed the land for more than one year, I met a man who lived in a house near one of the villages not far from here. This man was the only one that treated me as a human, but I guess that if he wasn't blind since birth, he would have treated me like everyone else. He took me in his house and educated me in a lot of things.

But there was something inside my head that kept on telling me that I should travel here, to this place. At first I ignored it and I told the man what I felt. He said that I should try to ignore the feeling because this place was home to the darkest of the dark. I didn't understand him, but I did as he told me. But the man was old, very old and on one day he didn't wake up out of his sleep no more. It was on that day that the feeling to come her came back, stronger than before. After living alone for some months I finally gave in to the feeling and traveled here. And you all know the rest since then."

Cadwgawn closed his eyes and opened them when he felt someone touching his hand. He looked up and stared into the brown eyes of Sarita. She looked at him silently; she could relate to some of the things that had happened to him. Cadwgawn tried to speak but couldn't find the right thing to say.

Suddenly they heard a big splash coming form where Dehat was sitting. They looked up alarmed only to stare at a huge boyish grin that covered Dehat's face.

He shrugged and pointed at a statue that had fallen into the water.

"It just tipped over, it wasn't my fault, honestly."

Cadwgawn stood up and walked towards the door.

"Come, it's time to get moving again."

He opened the door and immediately closed it again. He stumbled backwards and grabbed at his left arm; a small stream of blood oozed down from a cut inflicted by sharp claws. Something kicked down the door before he could do anything, trapping him underneath it.

Dehat and Sarita jumped up and got ready to battle whatever would walk in the room.

Cadwgawn managed to lift the door somewhat so he could escape. He joined the others and drew his sword. They all stared at the door, waiting for 'it' to enter.

"What the hell just happened to you blond?"

"I got trapped underneath the door."

"Before that."

"You're bleeding!"

Cadwgawn looked at his right shoulder and saw that something had left a deep cut. He looked at Sarita and grinned.

"Looks like you got you're work cut out for you now, this time I'll need some real medical attention."

"Don't complain if you can't move you're shoulder later okay."

"Look alive guys, here it comes!"

Hell broke lose right after Dehat had spoken these words. Hellions swarmed in the room as if they where a tidal wave made out of flesh and claws. Cadwgawn and Dehat stormed towards them covered by continuous gunfire provided by Sarita. The monsters that had entered the room first, died before they had landed even a single blow. Dehat and Cadwgawn where completely surrounded by the monsters within seconds, it didn't matter how many they killed; for every fallen monster, two took their place.

"This isn't going to well blond, there just to much of them."

Cadwgawn cleaved a hellion in two and evaded the attack of another.

"You're right, lets regroup and find a way out of this mess."

"'kay."

Dehat jumped up to get a somewhat better view and saw that the entire room was filled with monsters. He beheaded three monsters on his way down and cut off the claw of one of the monsters that came at him. He found Cadwgawn and joined him in the fight against his opponents. Suddenly Dehat stopped fighting and looked around him.

"Hey blond, where's Sarita?"

Cadwgawn froze and if it weren't for Dehat he would have met his maker well before his time. Cadwgawn cleaved his sword trough the monster in front of him and started hacking a way back to where he last saw Sarita. When he came there she was gone. Dehat had followed him and protected his back. Cadwgawn felt something he never felt in his short existence: fear.

"Saariiitaaaa!"

The fear changed into anger and Cadwgawn fought like he'd never fought before. Swinging his enormous sword he killed almost every monster in his proximity and if it weren't for Dehat's quick reflexes he would have killed him too.

"Yo blond, watch it will ya. I'm on you're side.

Cadwgawn turned to Dehat and mumbled an apology. They both turned when they heard a scream coming from behind them and saw that Sarita had climbed up one of the statues and was surrounded by monsters. Cadwgawn didn't hesitate and ran in her direction but was swarmed by monsters. He tried to fight them but there where too many of them. Dehat saw Cadwgawn disappearing in a wave of monsters and tried to help him but he was grabbed from behind. Dehat jumped in the air to break free, but the monster didn't let go. The monster that held Dehat threw Dehat towards one of the statues and Dehat flew right through it, breaking it into pieces. He got up as fast as he could and looked for his sword. Another monster grabbed him and threw him against the floor. Dehat was trapped and couldn't find a way out until he saw one of the statues gems laying next to him. He grabbed it and thought; (If it works for blond, it might as well work for me.)

The room turned black and suddenly it begun to rain. The rain turned into a thunderstorm, bright thunderbolts cleaved through the dark. The only sound that could be heard in this storm was the sound of a galloping horse. A bolt of thunder lighted the room and a horse with six legs could be seen. On the back of the horse sat a man dressed in an old armor and a worn out black cape. The man overlooked the battlefield and without any warning he stormed forwards cleaving every monster in two with his sword. The man and horse disappeared after the last monster had been killed.

Dehat threw off the dead monster and stood up. He looked at the gem in his hand and smiled. He turned and saw Cadwgawn standing with a glowing rock in his hands. Dehat looked at his gem, at Cadwgawn and back to his gem.

(Just a stupid gem!)

He tossed the gem and walked towards Cadwgawn.

"Hey blond, got more of those stones?"

Cadwgawn looked up to Dehat and shook his head, "No, I only had two. They where attached to my sword."

"Think you can give one to me? I think I know how to use them."

"Looks like he knows how to use them too."

Sarita walked towards them and picked up a sword one of the monsters had dropped.

"Hey guys, think you can teach me how to use this? 'Couse guns aren't that useful in this place."

"Sure, we'll teach you, right blond. Blond?"

Cadwgawn didn't react, not even when Sarita touched his right arm.

"Cadwgawn? Something wrong?"

Cadwgawn still didn't react; he just stood there looking at noting in particular. Blood oozed down from a small cut just above his left eyebrow and out of the wound in his right shoulder. Slowly he raised his left hand and looked at the gems he held.

"…………Dehat?"

"Yeah?"

"You said you knew what these gems are so tell me, what are these gems and how can they hold this power?"

"Huh? Eh, well… All I know is that they are called materia and they hold the powers of the planet or something. I was told once that they where used by almost everyone in the days before Sephiroth's reign, but they lost their power right after Sephiroth took control over the world."

Sarita interrupted him.

"They didn't lose their power, but to use the power you have to release a enormous amount of energy, and not just any energy but it has to be… well Kyrios called it mako energy. He once told me that mako energy is the same as spirit-energy and all living things contain this spirit-energy."

Cadwgawn looked at her completely puzzled.

"What are you talking about? What is this mako energy?"

Sarita sighed and tried to remember more correctly what Kyrios had told her but failed to recall.

"Sorry, I can't remember precisely what Kyrios told me, but I do know that you can use this materia and I think Dehat could use it too."

Dehat frowned and sat down on top of one of the slain monsters.

"Why do you think that?"

"Well, just… because."

"Uh uh, because of what?"

"I think she means because you too have been blessed with mako, as you said it yourself." Cadwgawn turned to Sarita, "So, you think that I can use this materia because I have a huge amount of mako, spirit-energy inside me."

Sarita tried to interrupt but Cadwgawn hushed her and continued, "It doesn't really matter what it is called, we can use this power and that is what's important, sorry that I brought it up. I guess I was somewhat shocked by the power and needed to understand it a little better."

Dehat stood up and walked towards the bath. He looked at the water; it had turned from bright blue to a deep red as a result of the many corpses that floated in it. He sighed and walked back to the others.

Sarita had forced Cadwgawn to sit down and was cleaning the wound on his shoulder. It was the only wound he had except for some little scratches and bruises.

Dehat sat down and watched how Sarita tried to attach a bandage around Cadwgawn's shoulder, but Cadwgawn wouldn't hold still so it took her quite an effort to do it, but eventually he gave in and she strapped the bandage around the wound. Sarita sat down with a triumphant expression on her face and looked at Dehat. She gave him a huge grin and punched Cadwgawn against his wounded shoulder.

He let out a cry and rubbed the place she just punched.

"What was that for?"

"For making me work so hard."

"But I… you wanted… I didn't need… yeah whatever!"

Cadwgawn stood up and rummaged trough his pockets.

"You gonna sharpen your sword again? Don't cut yourself blond."

Cadwgawn glared at Dehat and tried to think of something he could use to counter the remark. Unable to find one he sat down and stared in front of him.

"Ooh, I think we hurt his feelings, I'm sorry about that."

"You didn't hurt my feelings!"

"But Sarita did?"

"No!"

"Say Sarita, did you know he nearly lost it when he couldn't see you anymore. I'm telling you, he went bananas."

"I did not!"

Sarita got up and crouched next to Cadwgawn.

"You where worried about me, thank you."

She gave him a hug. Cadwgawn tried to push her away but she held on tightly.

"Let go, ok I was worried, but I didn't went bananas."

Sarita let go of him and stared him directly in his eyes. She bended over and kissed him on the cheek.

Cadwgawn looked at her and mumbled, "What was that for?"

"For being worried about me." Was the answer she gave him.

Dehat stood up and laughed when he saw the puzzled look on Cadwgawn's face.

"Ok, enough of this, let's move out before more monsters show up. It won't be so easy to get to the throne room now, after the ruckus we made here. You guys coming with me?"

Sarita pulled Cadwgawn up and walked to Dehat.

"We're ready, right Cadwgawn?"

"Huh? Uh… what?"

Dehat smiled and tapped him on the back.

"Sounds ready enough, lets go."

They left the room, unaware that they weren't the only living persons left in the room. A man walked out of the shadows and looked over the carnage the others had left. He walked to the bath and said to himself, "So the son has returned. And that other one, he looks so much as… well now, this could become most interesting. And little Sarita, how much she has grown."

He heard a noise outside the room and disappeared in the shadows once again. A small group of hellions walked in the room, talking to each other. They all stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the bloodbath. The commander of the group was the first to speak and ordered to inform all other squads that the intruders are in the right wing. 


End file.
